The Republican candidate who promised she is 'not a witch' owes the IRS big money

WASHINGTON — Republican Christine O'Donnell is perhaps best known for her 2010 U.S. Senate campaign ad proclaiming to Delaware voters, "I'm not a witch," after videos leaked of her talking about dabbling in witchcraft.

O'Donnell was running to replace Joe Biden in the U.S. Senate at a time when the far-right Tea Party movement sought to claim increased political power. But she lost — badly — and largely faded from public view.

But the Internal Revenue Service remembers her: New Federal Election Commission documentation shows O'Donnell's largely dormant political action committee, ChristinePAC, owes the taxman $6,113 — something O'Donnell, who railed against taxes during her campaign, cannot magically make disappear.

O'Donnell's PAC describes the nature of the debt in one word: "taxes."

ChristinePAC also owes Washington, D.C., law firm Foley & Lardner LLP, $5,604.92.

In 2011, O'Donnell told her supporters that she would use leftover campaign money to help fight government corruption in Washington.

"ChristinePAC can investigate and counter-attack leftwing groups, many funded with one million dollars or more from billionaire leftist George Soros," she wrote in an email, obtained by Talking Points Memo at the time. It isn't clear what exactly she did to fight the corruption she alleged.

It isn't the first time O'Donnell has had a run-in with the federal government over money. Her old U.S. Senate campaign account, separate from ChristinePAC, was hit with a hefty fine a few years ago.

It has been nearly six years and O'Donnell still hasn't paid the $25,000 fine that she owes to the U.S. Treasury, according to FEC records.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, filed a complaint alleging O'Donnell was using campaign cash to fund her personal expenses. It's a similar claim that got Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) into trouble in 2021 when she gave herself two checks for exactly $22,259 for what she called "gas mileage."

In the case of O'Donnell, CREW said that she used $20,000 in campaign funds for her own personal expenses. Or, as the FEC release described, O'Donnell's campaign was "... impermissibly converting campaign funds to the personal use of Christine O’Donnell."

"On April 19, 2017, the United States District Court for the District of Delaware ('the Court') ordered Christine O’Donnell, her campaign, and her treasurer ('the defendants') to pay a civil penalty for violating the ban on personal use of campaign funds," the 2017 FEC statement also said.

Representatives for O'Donnell and her political committees could not immediately be reached for comment.

O'Donnell denied that she ever authorized the infamous witch ad.

Nevertheless, O'Donnell was immortalized in 2010 by former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Kristen Wiig.

"I'm not a witch," Wiig begins the spoof ad mocking O'Donnell. "I'm nothing like you've heard. I'm you. And just like you, I have to constantly deny that I'm a witch. Isn't that what the people of Delaware deserve? A candidate who promises first and foremost that she is not a witch? That's the kind of candidate Delaware hasn't had since 1692. And that's why, if elected to the human Senate I promise to fly straight down to Washington, ha ha, on a plane, and do exactly what you would do. Not spells."

You can see the clip below or at the link here.

Christine O'Donnell - "I'm Not A Witch" Campaign SNL Parody by Kristin Wiigwww.youtube.com